Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists To Stand Trial In Charlottesville For Deadly 2017 Rally

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — Several leaders and key participants in the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally will be back in Charlottesville in a month to stand trial in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court.

The return of the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who played a role in the weekend of violence in August 2017 will force many Charlottesville residents to relive the trauma. The trial is scheduled to begin in late October.

Among the far-right extremists named in the lawsuit is Christopher Cantwell, a man known as the "Crying Nazi" who became a high-profile activist among neo-Nazis after being featured in a Vice News documentary about the Unite the Right rally.

Cantwell will travel to Charlottesville from a federal prison in Marion, Illinois, where he is serving a nearly 3½-year federal sentence for threatening to rape the wife of a man who was part of a separate racist group.

After uncertainty about who would cover the costs of Cantwell’s travel from Illinois to Charlottesville for the trial, the federal judge in the case ruled Tuesday that Cantwell’s travel costs will be covered by the federal government.

U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon ruled that the U.S. Marshal’s Office will transport Cantwell from the federal prison in Illinois to a detention facility in Virginia accessible to the federal courthouse in Charlottesville during the trial.

The cost of Cantwell’s transportation, estimated at almost $16,000, “shall be borne by the United States Government,” the judge said in his order.

The lawsuit, Sines v. Kessler, was filed in federal court in October 2017 by a group of Charlottesville-area residents against organizers and key participants of the rally.

The white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups used the city of Charlottesville's efforts to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to organize white nationalists across the country for the rally. In July, almost four years after the deadly rally, Charlottesville finally removed the Lee statue.

The two-day Unite the Right event in Charlottesville started off with hundreds of neo-Nazis and white supremacists marching through the grounds of the University of Virginia, carrying torches and chanting Nazi and white supremacist slogans.

As the march made its way to the north side of the Rotunda, the extremists surrounded a group of UVA students and local residents who had locked arms around a statue of Thomas Jefferson and attacked them.

According to reports, UVA officials knew of the route of the planned march by the neo-Nazis through the grounds but did nothing to stop the torch march or protect people from the large group of extremists.

The next day, at the rally, an avowed neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators, killing one and injuring many others. Survivors of the attack are part of the lawsuit against Cantwell and other people affiliated with the Unite the Right rally.

SEE ALSO: Charlottesville White Nationalist Sentenced Again In Car Attack

Among area residents who will monitor the trial is Susan Bro, the mother of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when Ohio resident James Fields Jr. rammed his car into the group of counterprotesters on the street in the downtown mall area.

In 2019, Fields was given two life sentences for killing Heyer and injuring dozens. Fields is also one of the defendants in the civil lawsuit going to trial next month.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed in October 2017, are asking for monetary damages and a ban on similar gatherings. The lawsuit cites laws enacted during Reconstruction to counter intimidation of Black residents in the South and more recent cases targeting anti-abortion activists.

The lawsuit accuses Unite the Right rally leaders and organizers — including white nationalists Richard Spencer, Jason Kessler and Matthew Heimbach — of violating state and federal civil rights laws by creating a menacing environment and inciting violence against people based on their race, religion and ethnicity.

The case received its name from plaintiff Elizabeth Sines, a University of Virginia law student at the time of the rallies, and Kessler, the primary organizer of the Unite the Right rally.

In a pre-trial filing in the case, Cantwell argued plaintiffs in the lawsuit showed up at the torch rally on the grounds of UVA "with the intent of exposing themselves to what they now call 'harassment and intimidation.'"

"Because the Plaintiffs voluntarily participated in and sought out exposure to Defendants' racially, religiously, and ethnically charged statements, the Plaintiffs cannot claim a cause of action for 'harassment and intimidation'" from the neo-Nazi torch march through the grounds of UVA, Cantwell wrote in a filing in the case dated Tuesday.

Cantwell, in attempting to distance himself from the actions of Fields on Aug. 12, described the ramming of the car into the crowd of counterprotesters near the downtown mall that killed Heyer and injured many more as an "accident."

He also noted that Republican lawmakers are advancing a number of new anti-protest measures at the state level, including multiple bills that specifically make it easier for drivers to run down protesters. In the case of Fields, Cantwell blames the counterprotesters for marching down Fourth Street, a one-way side street near Charlottesville's downtown mall.

"Plaintiffs' claims as to the Fields' car accident were the natural result of their aiding and abetting criminal activity and they have no recourse to the Courts for their injuries," Cantwell wrote.

The trial in the lawsuit against the leaders and key participants in the Unite the Right events is scheduled for Oct. 25 to Nov. 19.

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